"Yes, indeed, I am; my shoes are too small for me; you see my feet are so big that I can never find anything large enough for them. O, if I should ever be rich, I would have a pair of shoes made to measure!"
They reached Aulnettes. The pedler deposited in the hall his scaffold of hats, and stood there humbly enough. But Jack led him into the dining-room, saying, "You must have a gla.s.s of wine and a bit of bread."
Mother Archambauld frowned, but nevertheless put on the table a big loaf and a pot of wine.
"Now a slice of ham," said Jack, in a tone of command.
"But the master does not wish any one to touch the ham," said the old woman, grumbling. In fact, D"Argenton was something of a glutton, and there were always some dainties in the pantry preserved for his especial enjoyment.
"Never mind! bring it out!" said the child, delighted at playing the part of host.
The good woman obeyed reluctantly. The ped-ler"s appet.i.te was of the most formidable description, and while he supped he told his simple story. His name was Belisaire, and he was the eldest of a large family, and spent the summer wandering from town to town.--A violent thunder-clap shook the house, the rain fell in torrents, and the noise was terrific. At that moment some one knocked. Jack turned pale. "They have come!" he said with a gasp.
It was D"Argenton who entered, accompanied by Charlotte. They were not to have returned until late, but seeing the approach of the storm, they had given up their plan. They were, however, wet to the skin, and the poet was in a fearful rage with himself and every one else. "A fire in the parlor," he said, in a tone of command.
But while they were taking off their wraps in the hall; D"Argenton perceived the formidable pile of hats.
"What is that?" he asked. Ah! if Jack could but have sunk a hundred feet under ground with his stranger guest and the littered table! The poet entered the room, looked about, and understood everything. The child stammered a word or two of apology, but the other did not listen.
"Come here, Charlotte. Master Jack receives his friends to-day, it seems."
"O, Jack! Jack!" cried the mother in a horrified tone of reproach.
"Do not scold him, madame," stammered Belisaire. "I only am in fault!"
Here D"Argenton, out of all patience, threw open the door with a most imposing gesture. "Go at once," he said, violently; "how dare you come into this house?"
Belisaire, to whom no manner of humiliation was new, offered no word of remonstrance, but s.n.a.t.c.hed up his basket, cast one look of distress at the tempest out-of-doors, and another of grat.i.tude toward little Jack--who sighed as he heard the rain falling like hail on the Panamas,--and hurried down the garden walk. No sooner had the man reached the highway, than his melancholy voice resumed the cry, "Hats!
Hats to sell!"
In the dining-room profound silence reigned; the servant was kindling a fire, and Charlotte was shaking the poet"s coat, while he sulkily strode up and down the room.
As he pa.s.sed the table he caught sight of the ham on which the pedler"s knife had made sad havoc. D"Argenton turned pale. Remember that the ham was sacred, like his wine, his mustard, and mineral water. "What! the ham, too!" he exclaimed.
Charlotte, utterly stupefied by such audacity, could only mechanically repeat his words.
"I said, madame, that they ought not to cut the ham, that such pork was too good for such a vagabond. But the little fellow does not know much yet, he is so young."
Jack by this time was quite alarmed at what he had done, and could only beg pardon in a troubled tone.
"Pardon, indeed!" cried the poet, giving way, as it must be admitted he rarely did, to his temper, and shaking the boy violently, exclaimed, "What right had you to touch that ham? You knew it was not yours. You know that nothing here is yours; for the bed you sleep on, for the food you eat, you are indebted to my bounty. And why should I care for you?
I know not even your name!" Here an imploring gesture from Charlotte stopped the torrent of words. Mother Archambauld was still in the room, and listening with eagerness. The poet turned away suddenly, and rushed up stairs, banging the door after him.
Jack remained, looking at his mother in consternation. She wrung her pretty hands, and again implored heaven to tell her what she had done to merit such a hard fate.
This was her only resource in the serious perplexities of life; and, naturally, her question remained unanswered.
To add the finishing touch to the discomfort of the house, D"Argenton was now taken with one of "his attacks," a form of bilious fever.
Charlotte petted and soothed him, and waited upon him by inches. The sister-of-charity spirit, that lies in the depths of every womanly nature, made her love her poet the more because he was suffering. How tenderly she protected his nerves! She laid a woollen cloth on the table under the white one to soften the noise of the plates and the silver.
She piled the Henry II. chair with cushions, and had her rolls of hot flannels and her tisanes in readiness at all hours of the day and night.
Sometimes the poor little woman was fearfully rebuffed and mortified by a fretful exclamation from the poet. "Do be quiet, Charlotte; you talk too much!"
This illness brought the good-natured doctor to the house once more.
Charlotte met him in the hall. "Come quick, doctor, our dear poet is suffering," she said, anxiously.
"Nonsense, my dear; he only wants a little amus.e.m.e.nt."
In fact, D"Argenton, who greeted the physician in the most languid tones, soon forgot to keep up the farce in the pleasure of seeing a new face, which made a pleasant break in his monotonous life, and a few moments later beheld him launched on some dazzling episode of his Parisian life. The doctor saw no reason to doubt the truth of these narrations told in such measured and careful phrases, and was always pleased with the appearance of the family,--the intellectual husband, the pretty gay wife, and the amusing child; and no intuition gave him a hint, as might have been the case with a more delicate organization, of the peculiarity and bitterness of the ties which bound the household together.
Often, therefore, on these bright midsummer days, the doctor"s horse was fastened to the palisades, while the old man drank the cool gla.s.s carefully mixed for him by Charlotte herself, and as he drank, he told of his wonderful adventures in India. Jack listened with eyes and ears wide open.
"Jack!" said D"Argenton, peremptorily, and pointed to the door.
"Let him stay, I beg of you; I like to have children around me. I am quite sure that your boy has discovered that I have a grandchild;" and the old man talked of his little Cecile, who was two years younger than Jack.
"Bring her to see us, doctor," said Charlotte; "the two children would be so happy together."
"Thank you, dear madame; but her grandmother would never consent. She never trusts the child to any one; and she herself never goes anywhere since our great sorrow."
This sorrow, of which the old doctor often spoke, was the loss of his daughter and his son-in-law within a year after their marriage. Some mystery surrounded this double catastrophe. Even Mother Archambauld, who knew everything, contented herself with saying, "Yes, poor things! they have had a great deal of trouble."
The only prescription given by the doctor was a verbal one, "Keep him amused, madame; keep him amused!"
How could poor Charlotte do this? They went off together in a little carriage; breakfast, books, and a b.u.t.terfly-net accompanied them to the forest; but he was bored to death. They bought a boat, but a tete-a-tete in the middle of the Seine was worse than one on sh.o.r.e; and the little boat soon lay moored at the landing, half full of water and dead leaves.
Then the poet took to building; he planned a new staircase and an Italian terrace: but even this did not amuse him.
One day a man, who came to tune the pianoforte, extolled the merits of an AEolian harp. D"Argenton immediately ordered one made on a gigantic scale, and placed it on his roof. From that moment poor little Jack"s life was a burden to him. The melancholy wail of the instrument, like a soul in purgatory, pursued him in his dreams. To the child"s great relief, the poet was equally disturbed, and the harp was ordered to the end of the garden; but its shrieks and moans were still heard.
D"Argenton fiercely commanded that the instrument should be buried, which was done, and the earth heaped upon it as over some mad animal.
All these various occupations failing to amuse her poet, Charlotte reluctantly decided to invite some of his old friends, but was repaid for her sacrifice by witnessing D"Argenton"s joy on being told that Dr.
Hirsch and Laba.s.sandre were soon to visit them.
When Jack entered the house, a few days later, he heard the voices of his old professors. The child felt an emotion of sick terror, for the sounds recalled the memory of so many wretched hours. He slipped quietly into the garden, there to await the dinner-bell.
"Come, gentlemen," said Charlotte, smilingly, as she appeared on the terrace,--her large white ap.r.o.n indicating that au a good housekeeper she by no means disdained on occasion to lay aside her lace ruffles and take an active part.
The professors promptly obeyed this summons to dinner, and greeted Jack as he took his seat with every appearance of cordiality. Two large doors opened on the lawn, beyond which lay the forest.
"You are a lucky fellow," said Laba.s.sandre. "Tomorrow I shall be in that hot, dusty town, eating a miserable dinner."
"It is a good thing to be certain of having even a miserable dinner,"
grumbled Dr. Hirsch.
"Why not remain here for a time?" said D"Argen-ton, cordially. "There is a room for each of you; the cellar has some good wine in it--"
"And we can make excursions," interrupted Charlotte, gayly.